Liverpool 'willing to bet heavily' to sign £67m midfielder who could be in 'last months' at current club

Liverpool spent all of last summer working on plugging the holes left by the five midfielders who were either sold on or departed the club as free agents. The absence of Fabinho, James Milner and Jordan Henderson left the Reds in urgent need a defensive-minded midfielder but they were unable to get their hands on their initial targets.

Failed moves for Roméo Lavia and Moisés Caicedo, who both ended up at Chelsea instead, resulted in the scramble to sign Wataru Endō, who has fallen down the pecking order under Arne Slot. The Japanese international has played just one minute of Premier League football so far this season and Jamie Carragher recently tipped him to be moved on in January.

Even with Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister clearly impressing Slot this season, Liverpool remain on the market for a new midfielder after failing to sign Martín Zubimendi this summer. According to Fichajes, a name that has appeared on the radar is Aurélien Tchouaméni, who ‘could be living out his last months at Real Madrid’.

The 24-year-old is a widely appreciated talent and while Madrid are ‘satisfied with his potential’, they ‘would not be against selling him’ if the right offer arrives for him. A fee of €80 million (£67m) has been mentioned, which would allow Madrid to distribute that cash into other areas of the squad.

While a summer exit has not been ruled out, Liverpool have emerged as one of the clubs ‘most interested’ in signing Tchouaméni to bolster their options in the engine room.

The France international has been a regular for Los Blancos this season but the report says that he has not done enough to guarantee him an undisputed starting role at the club. Real Madrid have competition in midfield and Liverpool have ‘closely followed’ Tchouaméni’s situation. They are monitoring movement around the midfielder and seem ‘willing to be heavily’ on bringing him to Anfield next year.

While Tchouaméni is a defensive midfielder by trade, he can also operate at centre-back, which will add further depth to Liverpool’s squad. He is also a regular for France and started all but one of their matches during Euro 2024.